About Me

Ever since my first grade teacher taught our class about Christopher Columbus and how he discovered America, I have had a passion for history. It was my favorite subject in school, and while some of my friends found it "boring," I was always really excited to learn about US history and world history, especially the ancient Egyptians! When it was time to declare a major in college, I chose history, even though I was unsure of the career path I would take after studying it. I went on to pursue my Ph.D., and now have a career I love! The only other passion I have that rivals my love of history is a passion for education. I think anyone with a career they find mundane should return to college to pursue their passion. I plan to post many educational tips, so come back often!

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The modern educational system is rife with peril for a number of parties. Not only are students involved in difficult social situations which sometimes boil over into unfortunate circumstances, but teachers are held to strict standards which may intimidate them and ultimately hamper performance. From an administrative standpoint, cutting through those perspectives to evaluate a teacher fairly can be a real challenge.

Rather than allowing yourself to be married to inflexible regulations which don't take individual tendencies and abilities into account, you should consider customizing your evaluation approach. Below, you'll find a guide to some of the advantages of the custom teacher evaluation, providing you with the confidence you need to break the mold and administer efficiently.

Increased Trust

Even though the process of education differs greatly from other industries, some of the underlying relationships remain functionally the same. As an administrator, you're responsible for exercising oversight over teachers, and yet doing so can be a real challenge if they don't trust that you're making an effort to truly integrate them.

Custom evaluations will allow you to substantially increase that trust by making teachers feel as though they aren't being evaluated against a cold and faceless gauntlet of statistics. By being more willing to weigh out individual positives against institutional negatives, you'll send the message to your teachers that you're willing to have their backs.

Better Student Reactions

Most students are clever enough to realize when their teachers are being evaluated. This can lead to them either taking care to be on their best behavior in order to show a teacher support, or potentially even acting up more than usual to force a teacher into a reaction.

To get a more honest view of the behavior of students in the classroom, consider using custom evaluations. This will allow you to switch up the time and the method for evaluating instructors, and can keep the students slightly more off balance and willing to show their normal selves.

More Focused Improvements

Standardized evaluation forms may struggle to identify specific areas of need for teacher improvement. A teacher who is adequate in a variety of areas but perhaps exceptional in none may be able to change that by tweaking small performance aspects, but that can be difficult to determine from blanket statements. Rather than settling for a smoothed over evaluation of performance, use a custom evaluation to get deeper into areas of concern so that you can be a true mentor.